Friday, August 20, 2010

Appointed by Governor and Senate Rules Committee

Have Mike McConnell or deaf detractors being experienced of being appointed to the advisory board by the elected officeholder??? Nyet!

During the early 1990s, I was appointed to the independent living advisory board by Washington, DC Mayor Sharon Dixon. Was I truly qualified to serve on this advisory board??? Definitely NOT!

The office of DC Mayor Dixon just sent me a letter to congratulate me to serve on the DC Independent Living advisory board out of "blue". I never expressed such an interest to serve on that advisory board. Of course, I was enthrilled and honored to be appointed by DC Mayor Dixon at age of 25.

I attended and attended most of the independent living advisory board meetings for about three years. Nothing accomplished at all. The IL advisory board just discussed same things all over and all over on one subject - agrument about the organizational by-laws. What the fuck!!!

Nothing of any agenda or issues to discuss and vote! The advisory board was chaired by the fucking blind guy, who happened to have a beautiful deaf daughter. That chairperson always said to me - "I have a deaf daughter" with head nodded and displayed "Steve Wonder-like" teeth. Yes, the ASL interpreter was provided, but always got in a heated arguments with me. That interpreter always asked me - "You, DC resident?? Please repeat, repeat what you said",
"Wait until someone done with their sayings", "Sorry, too late for your turn to speak" and keep interpreting, interpreting. What the fuck!

I had my tolerance level already exceeded above the normal means. I gently banged on the conference table for me to say something - "Why the hell we keep talking about the organizational bylaws revision for three years???" Guess what? The assigned interpreter refused to repeat what I said in front of the advisory board. I walked out in digust!

I chose not to attend any fucking advisory board meetings at all. I found out that I was still on the advisory board after more than two years absence. I happened to have conversation with David Nelson, deaf DC resident and DC Association of the Deaf member at that moment. Nelson and other deaf individuals had no knowledge about me being on the IL advisory board. See that?? What a big joke about the so-called advisory board itself appointed by the elected officeholder!!

Wonder how the hell for the qualification of someone to serve on the advisory board to be appointed by the Governor of California??? Will someone be selected based on hir own expertise in given area??? Or the Governor's whim to appoint such individuals tailored to his political preference to pack the advisory board in name of democracy? That would be seen more as a sleath dictatorship for the Governor to appoint individuals to the advisory board.

WHY can't the targeted community like the deaf stakeholders and parents of deaf children to make list of recommendations for individuals serving on the AB 2072 advisory board? Will the appointment of individuals be truly qualified and efficient to serve on the AB 2072 advisory board?

We would look at two major gubernational candidates running for the California governor's seat - Meg White, wealthy CEO candidate - very pro-business individual and Jerry Brown, the tiresome liberal, who really fuck up the city of Oakland in big-time. Should we trust either White and Brown to pack the AB 2072 advisory bill for the creation of balanced and fair brochure?

Why wait untl 2017 for the deadline of completing the brochure? Why can't the brochure be all done in less than 2 years or less?

ASLIze yours,
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
RLMDEAF blog

3 comments:

  1. dunno what the hell u were talkin'! ur english is confus'! it hurt my eyes! ur ASL ruins ur english!Soree i can't follow u.

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  2. To the Anonymous 11:11 pm

    Your respond shows who you are.

    RLM could be a by-product of AGBell ideology that screwed up many Deaf people in our society.

    Instead of bashing, why not you rectify what causing the problems with the majority of the Deaf people that have English problems though the of advocate with speech and hearing before learning cognitive language skills for visual people which is American Sign Language?

    Shame on you for your inconsiderated attitude.

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  3. That's right. People need to remember that most deaf people were born from hearing parents. First of all, many younger generations do not get diagnosed until they are speaking and sometimes until they entered Kindergarten (teachers noticed they are not learning) You know the first thing hearing parents do is make sure they have speech and hearing with hearing aids before they gave up and decided on sign language. My parents did. And I failed many English writing in school, and my national testing score (or whatever that test was that we had to take every year back in the 80's and 90's) on reading and writing was below average. All my public school hearing peers were average and above average (they were showing off their scores with other kids).

    And I could say that to anyone who is learning a second language.. Like Spanish to English.

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